Attitudes of Medical and Health Sciences Students towards Abortion in Jordan

Abstract

Background. Jordan laws on permitting abortion are considered moderate. Religion is one of the key determinants of people’s attitudes towards abortion and plays a crucial role in people’s readiness to accept or refute this practice. In this study, we examined the attitudes of medical and health sciences students towards abortion. Methods. In this cross-sectional study, a self-administered questionnaire survey was distributed to students at Jordan University of Science and Technology. Attitudes towards abortion were tested using 16 items that were included in the survey. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models were used in the analysis. Results. A total of 1324 students in the medicine and dentistry colleges participated in the study. Two-thirds of the participants were women. Most participants were 20–25 years old, and they grew up in a family of 6–8 members. The overall attitude towards abortion was negative, except if the pregnancy was a threat to the mother’s life (91.5%) or if the conception occurred from rape (54.2%). Otherwise, the students indicated that every conceived child has the right to be born (76.8%) and that abortion is considered murder (53.1%). Furthermore, the students who were more likely to support abortion were those attending the medical college, living in a city, and/or raised in smaller families ( p = 0.04 ). Conclusions. Compared with other students, medical students were more supportive of abortion. This implied the necessity to include training on safe abortion in the medical curriculum and increase public awareness of the importance of safe abortion.

Attitudes of medical students towards the ethical and legal aspects of abortion: a cross-sectional study from Saudi Arabia

“…This is consistent with the results of other studies. 4,5,[11][12][13][14][15][16] Our study also showed that most of the participants were against permitting abortion in the case of financially incapable parents (70.3%), and in the case of unplanned pregnancy (82%).…”

“…3 A similar conclusion was made in Jordan, where around 53% of students believed that abortion should be considered a form of murder. 5 However, medical students' attitudes toward abortion may change as they progress in their academic levels. In our study, most clinical-year students (72.6%) agreed that abortion isn't considered a type of murder which was significantly higher than pre-clinical-year students (46.2%).…”

Predictors of Abortion Attitudes in Medical Students After the Reversal of Roe v. Wade

“…Although medical students are more supportive of abortion than students of other disciplines, such as science and engineering, their opinions on abortions are not homogenous [23,24]. Medical students' opinion on abortion seems to differ based on the patient's reasons for undergoing an abortion [3].…”

“…Research regarding the abortion attitudes of individuals and medical students who identify as Muslim has been done outside of the U.S. and showed that Muslims are more likely to support traumatic abortion and oppose elective abortion than other groups [13,24].…”

Placing abortion in historical, legal, and clinical context in American medical school classrooms

“…While European democracies have not seen abortion enter the political arena to the extent it has in the United States, the procedure nevertheless generates controversy—and influences politics—in other countries as well. In countries where abortion does generate significant debate, religion is often the chief factor influencing medical and public attitudes toward the procedure, dissuading physicians from providing access even in situations where abortion is legal (Saadeh et al, 2021). In Argentina, for example, abortion is legal only if a woman's health is threatened by the pregnancy, or if the pregnancy is the result of sexual assault.…”